Asian Development Bank-ADPC Technical Assistance to the States of Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh

The Technical Assistance (TA) funded by the Asian Development Bank is being implemented in the states of Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh (UP) by ADPC, in association with the World Institute for Disaster Risk Management (DRM), Alexandria, and the Center for Development Studies, Nainital, India. The TA is aimed at strengthening disaster management and mitigation in both states by developing institutional arrangements, and strengthening disaster planning through the development of state, district and village level disaster action plans, and through assessment and liaison with other disaster management initiatives in the country. Activities and outputs in the past three months have included:

• Workshop on Institutional Arrangements and Planning for Disaster Management in Uttar Pradesh. The workshop involved a review of existing institutional and planning systems in place in UP, an overview of innovative institutional arrangements and planning for disaster management in other states of India such as Orissa, Gujarat and Uttaranchal, and other countries in the region.
• Production of two videos. One was titled “Towards a Safer Life”, about retrofitting traditional housing in the Himalayan sub-region of Uttaranchal. The second was called “Seeing is Believing”, about shake table tests showing the earthquake resistance of retrofitted versus non-retrofitted vernacular housing.
• Preparation of draft district plans. A draft district disaster management plan for Maharajganj, a flood-prone district of Eastern UP, has been prepared and submitted for review to government officials at state and district levels. A similar plan is being prepared for Kanpur, an industrialized city in Central UP.
• Two district level workshops in Uttaranchal. Two workshops on development of District Disaster Management Action Plans (DDMAP) were held in Chamoli and Rudraprayag in December and January respectively.
• Production of calendars. A set of calendars have been printed that bear public awareness messages about safer construction, retrofitting and earthquake vulnerability.